Revision as of 18:39, 26 February 2015

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Running paper wallets off of live websites

Let's never recommend this to users. It is ALWAYS a bad idea to run HTML/JS off of a live website. It does not matter whether you disconnect from the Internet after loading up the HTML -- the code you have loaded may already have been tampered with. At the moment, virtually all HTML/JS based wallet generators allow downloading from github with easy checksumming, so let's always recommend downloading the ZIP file and running entirely offline after verifying signatures.

Self Promotion

As bitcoinpaperwallet.com guy, I admit to it! :) But I also think there should be some good guidelines considering the most recent edits to this page:

1) When listing services, let's alphabetize them, or put them in chronological order (oldest and most venerable to newest). Bitaddress.org shouldn't get pushed to the end of the list just because pointbiz doesn't actively monitor this page.

2) When discussing general topics (like entropy) it's inappropriate to link out to a particular websites. The only time you should link to an external website is from the references section, or when the link clearly indicates you're going to be sent to an external website.

Paper wallets a bad idea - why?

Recently the article was changed to add a 'why' tag to the idea that 'storing Bitcoin' on a paper wallet is a generally perceived to be a bad idea. I have to agree with that tag. I actually find the opposite when reading about the best way to store one's private keys. Perhaps it should be expanded instead to a Pros / Cons section? The 'Printer Security' section would then be merged into the Cons section. TheRealSteve (talk) 14:26, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

I don't know why this is so discouraged either. If anything, I think this page should be shortened and merged into the paper wallet page under a new section to prevent confusion. New users may not know what an ECDSA private key is, even if they have theirs on paper. Taras (talk) 14:31, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

I added that tag, because I think it's poor form (in general) to say: "This is a bad thing to do" and not offer any explanation. People who have the knowlegde to say that, also should be able to explain it.

Judging from the history the two were separated to differentiate between HD paper wallets (although I would call those "Paper backups" and Single key "paper wallets". One reason given is that a single key on a paper is not a wallet. I think it's debatable if a HD seed printed on paper makes that paper a wallet. For proper wallet functionality you'll need some way to sign and send a tx, so anything "paper" is not a proper wallet, IMHO. But of course nobody thinks of a wallet that can sign txs etc., if they say "paper wallet" to begin with.

I support merging this with paper wallet and also a pro/con section. Newar (talk) 15:04, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

Paper wallets vs cold storage

The term 'paper wallets' also seems to be used at times for objects made out of metal, plastic, etc. To avoid that mixup further, should the article instead be renamed 'Cold storage' or even 'Storage methods', listing the various methods (be that an offline computer which doesn't need more than 1 paragraph, or literal paper wallets, physical coins (e.g. Casascius), insert-your-method-here? TheRealSteve (talk) 14:29, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

I think since "Paper wallet" is such an ubiquitous and well known term, it should have its own page. An overview over different "Cold storage methods" would then link to that page. Or make a category "Cold storage methods" and have a page for each, but most can be summarised in a single paragraph, so I'd lean to the overview solution. Newar (talk) 15:09, 10 February 2015 (UTC)